Valve for fire-extinguishing system



July 1, 1952 c. H. RAND ET AL VALVE FOR FIRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM FiledNov. 8, 1949 3 m w #M Eom w WNA IMG A V MT 1 6 H 24 24 mun-Jun 33Patented July 1, 1 952 VALVE FORFIRE-EXTINGUISH ING SYSTEM Cecil H. Bandand Christopher G. Aycock, Fremont, N. C.

Application November 8, 1949, Serial No.12as4 This invention relates toa fire extinguishing system, more particularly to apparatus including aquick acting valve for automatically turning 4 Claims. (cries-19) on theflow of fire extinguishing fluid, such as carbon dioxide gas, upon theoccurrence of a fire.

While the apparatus embodying the present invention is of generalapplication, it has particular usefulness in extinguishing fires such asoccur in tobacco curing barns. In the curing of tobacco, thefire hazardis quite considerable, there being about 2,000 barns burned a year inonly one state. An outstanding disadvantage of many conventional typesof fire extinguishing systems is that they are not always reliable andpositive in operation, particularly the automatic control valvesthereof, and oftentimes they will either fail to operate or will operateonly after the fire has done considerable damage before the fireextinguishing fluid is turned on.

An object of this invention is'to provide, in a fire extinguishingsystem, a control valve and latching means therefor which is reliableand quick acting'in operation, and effective for initiating a. flow offire extinguishing fiuid at a predetermined temperature indicative of afire condition.

Other objects and advantages of our invention will become apparent froma study of the following specification, taken with the accompanyingdrawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view somewhat schematic and partly incross-section showing afire extinguishing system embodying the presentinvention and applied to a barn or building;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged elevational view of the automatic fluid controlvalve shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the control valve shownin Fig. 2 taken along line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along along line 44 of Fig. 3,and

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the valve shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

Referring more particularly to the figures, numeral l denotes abuilding, such as, for example, a tobacco barn, the contents of whichare to be protected against fire. Exteriorly of the building,preferably, there is provided a storage tank 2 filled with carbondioxide or other fire extinguishing fluid under pressure.

flames to smother andextinguish the-fire.

The top of tank 2 is connected by valve 2a to a pipe or conduit 3,which, in turn, is connected to an automatic control valve denotedgenerally by numeral 4. When the gas of tank 2 flows through the. valve,it will be conducted by pipe 5 to a disbursing funnel 6 or other deviceto spread the carbon. dioxide below the ceiling'of the building or barnso as'to form a blanket of carbon dioxide gas over the For mosteffective results, building I should be substantially air-tight toprevent' entry of oxygen due'to drafts and other causes, and to retainthe carbondioxide gas. With such air-tight building, such gas willeffectively extinguish the fire by smotheringancl lowering the kindlingtemperature.

In order to control. the automatic valve 4, there is strung by a wire Ia plurality of low melting point fuse links, such as 8, of any suitablemetal. For example, the fuse links may be made of an alloy consisting of50% bismuth, 30% lead and 20 tin which has a melting point ofapproximately 197.6" F. Such alloy, however, is merely exemplary, itbeing obvious that other alloys having other melting points are likewisesuitable. One end of wire 1 is connected to a leaf spring latch 9 andthe other end is fastened by means of a turnbuckle ill to the oppositeside wall of the building, thereby placing wire I under tension.

-As will appear more clearly from Fig. 3, the leaf spring latch 9 isnormally biased outwardly to the position shown in dash-and-dot lines sothat upon melting of any of the fuse links 8, the latch 9 will move fromthe full line to the dash-anddot line position-to allow opening of thevalve, as will appear more clearly hereinafter.

The valve 4 comprises a valve body ll having a bore extending centrallyand longitudinally therethrough through which is slidably'fitted aplunger l2 whose outer end portion is provided with a notch [3. A cam I4is pivotally mounted on body II by pin IS. A valve release spring l6surrounds plunger I2 and has one end seated against a top wall of thebore and the other end resting against a holding nut [8 held in anylongitudinal adjustable position by screw threaded engagement with theplunger. Plunger l2 may be forced upwardly to compress spring 16 by anysuitable means, such as by clamping in a vise, thereby allowing the camHi to become seated in notch [3. The cam M is maintained in thehorizontal seated position shown in Fig. 3 by means of the tension ofwire 7 which holds latch spring 9 inwardly against the valve body in thelatched position. A safety pin i9 is provided for locking the cam in thelatching position, as shown, whenever desired, such as during assemblywhen stringing wire I.

At the bottom portion of the valve is provided a valve stem. 28 having athreaded shank encircled by'a valve disk or washer 2| of any suitablematerial for forming an air-tight fit with the valve seat of conical orother desired corresponding shape. An extension 22 of the stem has aflanged upper end portion also screwed onto stem 20 for tightlyholding'washer 2| in place and a lower end portion slidably fittedWithin a cylindrical bore formed in a cap screw 23. Washer 24 of copperor other suitable material is interposed between the cap screw and valvebody for forming an air-tight joint. A helical valve seating spring 25surrounds stem 22 and has one end resting on the inner face of the capscrew 23 and the other resting against the flanged end portion of stem22 to provide yieldable pressure for maintaining the valve in its closedposition. Screw threaded openings 25 and 21 are provided to serve. asinlet and outlet openings, respectively, and to which the ends of pipes,such as 3 and 5, may be screwed. Threaded openings 28 are'provided formounting the valve on a wall such as the outer wall of building I.

It should be especially noted that the valve valve tightly so thatthereis no leaking. therethrough.

In operation, let it be assumed that thevalve is in the closed positionas illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, and that a fire should occur within thebuilding. After a predetermined temperature has been reached sufiicientto melt one or more of the fuse links 8, the tension of wire I will berelieved, allowing leaf spring 9 to spring outwardly to the dash-and-dotline position shown, thereby unlatching earn it, thereby allowing springH5 r to force plunger 12 downwardly with a substantial force. After ashort downward travel, the lower end of the plunger will abut againstthe top end of stem 29 causing the latter to be pushed downwardly,thereby unseating disc 2| and opening the valve against the action ofthe Weaker spring 25. Therefore, carbon dioxide or other fluid underpressure from tank 2 will flow through the valve in the direction shownby the arrows, thence through pipe 5 and funnel 6 so as to spreadunderneath the Ceiling and form a blanket to extinguish the fire.

Of course, after the fire has been extinguished, and the melted fuselinks replaced, wire 7 is strung again so as to hold leaf spring 9 inthe vertical or latching position to maintain the valve in a closedposition in readiness for another possible fire.

Thus it will be seen that we have provided an efficient fireextinguishing system having an Valve seating spring 2 only, and thatvarious changes and modifications may be made within the contemplationof my invention and within the scope of the following claims.

- We claim:

1. A fluid control valve for a fire extinguishing system adapted to becontrolled by having a fusible link means, the valve latching leafspring to be yieldably biased to the latched position by the fusiblelink means, said valve including a stem-like plunger having a notchtherein, a valve release spring mounted on said plunger, a pivotallymounted doubl cam having one face seated in a notch formed in saidlatching leaf spring and the other face seated in said stem-like plungernotch so as to maintain said valve release spring under compression,whereby upon fusing of said link means by a fire said latching leafspring will spring away from the cam-seating position, unlatching andallowing said cam to turn and said valve release spring to cause openingof said valve to admit flow of fire extinguishing fluid therethrough.

2. An automatic valve for a fire extinguishing system adapted to beactuated on the occurrence of a predetermined temperature to admit fireextinguishing fiuid therethrough, said valve comprising a plunger, avalve release spring mounted thereon, latch means including a resilientlatching element and an interlocking cam between said element and saidplunger normally held by said latching element for latching said plungerin a position so as to compress said spring, a valve stem having a valvethereon and a valve seating spring for normally maintaining said valvein closed position, said stem being operable by saidplunger under theaction of said valve release spring when said cam is released by biasingsaid latching element out of contact therewith to overcome the bias ofsaid valve seating spring and open said valve and cause flow of saidfluid from a source of fire extinguishing fluid under pressure.

3. An automatic control valve for a fire extinguishing system comprisinga body having secured thereto a latching leaf spring, a double latchingcam pivotally mounted on said body and having one face latched by saidleaf spring, a plunger slida'bly mounted in said valve body including anotch for latching by the other face of said double latching cam, avalve release spring contained within a bore in said body and latchedunder compression by said cam and leaf spring, and a valve stemcoaxially mounted with respect to said plunger with one end in closelyspaced relationship with the inner end of said plunger so as to belongitudinally movable thereby upon deflection of said leaf spring fromlatching position to unlatch said double cam and release said releasespring thereby moving said stem in a direction so as to open said valve.

4. Apparatus recited in the preceding claim wherein a valve seatingspring is provided on said stem, a cap screw threaded onto an end ofsaid body for maintaining said last named spring under relatively smallcompression for holding said valve in the closed position, and an inletconduit connected to the side of the valve containing the valve seatingspring to couple a fluid under pressure therethrough so that the fluidunder pressure will assist the last named spring in maintaining thevalve in closed air-tight condition at all times while the valve islatched in normally closed position.

CECIL H. RAND. CHRISTOPHER G. AYCOCK.

6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the V fileof this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 269,199 Grinnell Dec. 19, 1882550,820 Burson Dec. 3, 1895 976,448 Emmons Nov. 22, 1910 2,375,615 BoalMay 8, 1945 2,502,452 Grant Apr. 4, 1950

